UKBA detention capacity @ 26th July 2010

Harmonds- worth IRC, managed by GEO Group UK, is now back to full capacity after being partially made uninhabitable by frustrated detainees in November 2006.

Formally known as 'Wackenhut Corrections Corporation', GEO Group has been accused of gross civil rights violations relating to adequate access to food and medical care, especially at its USA Northwest Detention Center, including unlawful interrogations and coercing inmates to sign paperwork they would otherwise not be inclined to. Source 'Wikipedia'. GEO's worldwide operations include the management/ownership of 63 prisons/Immigration Removal Centres and residential treatment facilities with a capacity of 61,500 beds.

As of today there are a total of 3,436 bed spaces, in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) and Short Term Holding Facilities (STHFs).

A sizable number of prison bed spaces are occupied by persons off the end of criminal sentences (have reached their release date) and continue to be detained as immigration offenders, awaiting deportation or transfer to a detention centre. UKBA no longer release the numbers of those held in prison as immigration offenders.

Eight IRCs and 4 STHFs are owned/managed or managed by private corporations, three IRCs managed by the Prison Service.

(Editors note, data has been taken from UKBA/Private management web sites)

USA: Deportation by Default

Mental Disability, Unfair Hearings, and Indefinite Detention in the US Immigration. Immigrants with mental disabilities are often unjustifiably detained for years on end, sometimes with no legal limits. The report documents case after case in which people with mental disabilities were prevented from making claims against deportation - including claims of US citizenship - because they were unable to represent themselves. Some of the people interviewed for the report did not know their own names, were delusional, could not tell time, or did not know that deportation meant removal from the United States.
Full report: Human Rights Watch 25/07/10